


Founder Effect

by Transposable_Element



Series: Founders of Green Sky [1]
Category: Green Sky Trilogy - Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Genre: Dialogue Heavy, Disagreements, Ethical Dilemmas, Founding Principles, Gen, Philosophy, Rare Fandoms, Social Justice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-04
Updated: 2014-11-04
Packaged: 2018-02-24 03:07:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2566073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Transposable_Element/pseuds/Transposable_Element
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two of the founders of the Green Sky colony discuss their differences.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Founder Effect

**Author's Note:**

> _Let us now swear,_  
>  _by our gratitude for this fair new land,_  
>  _that here, under this green and gentle sky,_  
>  _no man shall lift his hand to any other,_  
>  _except to offer Love and Joy._
> 
> Oath of Nesh-om

“What’s wrong, Alex?”

“I thought you couldn’t pense.”

“I don't need to pense to see that you’re unhappy. Credit my finely honed sensitivity to social and behavioral cues. Besides, you’re frowning,” said Natacha.

“Am I? Oh dear. Most unjoyful of me.”

Natacha grimaced. “Unjoyful? Please tell me that's not one of yours. It makes me think of double-plus ungood.”

“Yes, it’s a little sickening, isn’t it? I think it was Rémy who came up with it,” he said.

“She should stick to ecology.”

“Yes…”

“Come on, Alex, please tell me what it is.”

“Just thinking about the meeting last night. I know nothing’s been decided yet, but it seems so cruel, to tell them. They’re so innocent. Like Adam and Eve before the Fall. Why should they have to learn about war and violence and man’s inhumanity to man? They’re free of all that.”

“Because we want them to _stay_ free of it, Alex. You know that. Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.”

“That’s a platitude, not a law of nature,” he said.

Natacha sighed. She understood very well why he hated the thought of telling the youths about their legacy, because she felt the same way. Thinking about it made her want to weep, but sooner or later they would have to do it. Or was it possible that he was right, and that telling the young people about their species' terrible past was unnecessary? It was so peaceful here. No predators, no struggle over resources. Even the weather was calm. Even the planet itself was gentle: no significant tectonic activity; gravity that was low, but not too low. The air was free of chemical pollutants, of course, but Natacha sometimes fancied there was more to it, that the air was cleaner than clean, untainted by the exhalations of billions of suffering, oppressed people desperately trying to purge the misery from their systems with every breath....It seemed like a miracle, to have found such a beautiful and hospitable planet. It was hard to imagine a better place to found a civilization based on principles of non-violence.

On a nearby grund branch there were some teenagers larking about. As Alex and Natacha watched, one of the boys spread out the glider panels of his jumpsuit and flung himself off the branch. Natacha felt a brief surge of panic before her rational mind kicked in and reminded her that he was safe. Even without the panels, at this height, in this gravity, he probably wouldn’t be badly hurt by a fall to the forest floor.

“I wish I could do that,” she said.

“You could learn,” said Alex.

“Well, I have learned, sort of,” she said. “But I’ll never really be good at it, not like the—“ she stopped herself. “Not like those who came here as children,” she said carefully.

“Nor will I. But it’s great fun,” said Alex.

“If you say so….But, about what you were saying a minute ago, Alex: this isn’t the Garden of Eden. Sometimes it seems that way, but it isn’t. Nobody remains innocent forever. They’ll have to taste the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge sometime. Otherwise, when some real conflict arises—and it will—they won’t know how to deal with it. Anger and fear are normal parts of the human emotional spectrum. We can’t just train all of that out of them.”

“No, but we can teach them ways to channel and control their negative feelings, keep them from becoming too intense.”

“Anger and fear _aren’t_ negative feelings. Fear is protective. Anger is a perfectly healthy response to injustice or cruelty. ”

“You know what I mean, Natacha…”

“No, I don’t know what you mean! I'm as committed to non-violence as you are, but it has to be based on the free choice to interact peacefully, not on suppressing any emotion that might be dangerous or disruptive. Sometimes I wonder whether everything we’re doing to train them is indoctrination. That’s what it _will_ be, if we don’t help them to understand why all of it is necessary. They may be like Adam and Eve in the Garden, but if we try to act like gods, then we’ve already failed.”

“Oh, I know,” he said reassuringly. “Hierarchies are always dangerous. Ideally we’d do away with them altogether. But we’re stuck with hierarchy as long as you and I are alive, and all the others who came here as adults. We can’t erase the differences between us and the children, they're too profound. There are some things we’ll have to leave to the future, like working out a truly egalitarian system. I’m sure the children will be up to the task. They might do it better without our guidance.”

“I hope so. But you should stop calling them ‘the children,’ Alex. Some of them are grown and partnered now. And none of them are really children any more. I'm constantly stumbling over teenagers engaged in 'joyful communion.' Honestly, sometimes I don’t know which way to look.”

Alex laughed. “It’s beautiful and natural. They’re completely uninhibited. I think it’s lovely.”

“So do I, in theory. But it’s not the way I was brought up, and I’m too old to change!”

“I’m older than you are,” he said.

“Yes, well, you had a much more adventurous youth than I did…” she grumbled.

He grinned. “Maybe you're right. We should start working more on getting them to keep it private,” he said.

“Are you being conciliatory?”

“Yes.”

Natacha looked at him. They were old friends. They had never been lovers, and she thought in some ways that made their friendship more intimate. “I know we’re trying to get to the same place," she said. "We just have some disagreements about how to get there from here, that’s all. We’ll work them out.”

Someone called from the branch above. “Dr. Orme?”

Natacha peered through the foliage at the youth smiling down at her. “Yes, is that Merry? What is it?”

“I don’t know, Dr. Agassiz asked me to fetch you.” Catching sight of Alex, Merry smiled a little wider. “Joy to you, Dr. Wissen.”

“And joy to you,” said Alex.

“I’ll be right there,” said Natacha. “We’re just trying to resolve a few differences.”

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like this should end with an ominous chord.
> 
> There's a lot of my headcanon underlying this story, some of which I may eventually explore. There really needs to be more Green-sky fic. I wish more people were reading/writing it.
> 
> This story takes place about 10 years after the founding of the colony. A lot of things are still in flux, socially, politically, linguistically, and technologically.
> 
> I hope it's obvious that Natacha Orme is my attempt at a name that might conceivably be corrupted to Nesh-om. Canonically D'ol Nesh-om is a man, but I thought it would be interesting to make Nesh-om female. Besides, there ought to be more middle-aged female protagonists. 
> 
> I did my best not to make D'ol Wissen into a big bad. I do understand how painful it is to try to explain the depths of human cruelty to a child, especially one who has led a relatively sheltered life. I think of Wissen as a talented, charismatic man who makes some bad decisions that trap him into making even more catastrophic decisions.


End file.
